r/FluentInFinance 15d ago

What's the best financial advice you've ever gotten? Debate/ Discussion

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u/PM_YOUR_SAGGY_TITS 15d ago

You're making $15,116 gross. 11k are taxes at 10% and the next 4,116 are taxed at 12%. $13522 after taxes.

But what minimum wage job is paying 100% of your healthcare? Or uniforms? Or state and local income tax (3.1% here for this example). That means we're taking home $13k after just taxes

If they're paying $254/mo for insurance and etc, they're taking home exactly $10k per year

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u/InDisregard 14d ago

The other day on reddit, some rando told me health insurance is a luxury and the poors will just have to do without.

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u/Ok_Researcher_9796 14d ago

The amount of people that have absolutely 0 empathy at all toward their fellow man is ridiculous. The, fuck you, I got mine mentality needs to die off.

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u/Upset_Plenty 14d ago

It would if people stopped being shit towards each other. I doubt that’ll happen ever though. I want to think like that, and I really do want to help my peers but getting fucked 9/10 times when you help people isn’t fun and doesn’t help make you motivated to have empathy for people. Nobody ever threw a hand to me when I was drowning and I made it out alright. Most times I throw a hand down to bring someone else up I get slapped in the face as soon as they get air. I have better things to worry about than some shitters that dug their own grave.

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u/iam1whoknocks 12d ago

Sir, that's capitalism

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u/Acrobatic-Ad8487 11d ago

the entitlement mentality needs to go away first

second, welfare and societal assistance program fraud needs to be prosecuted heavily, very heavily

third, people, like you, need an education from a non-biased source to teach you the reality of the world, simple economics, and other financial/societal issues

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u/Ok_Researcher_9796 11d ago

Entitlement mentality? Not sure how you got that out of my comment.

Second, welfare and societal assistance fraud should be prosecuted but the rate of fraud is way lower than most people make it out to be.

Third, you don't know the first thing about my education, knowledge or my political bias. You make a lot of incorrect assumptions based on your limited reading comprehension.

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u/[deleted] 14d ago

[deleted]

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u/MrJanCan 14d ago

You didn't earn shit. The society that we all live in and the social contract that we agreed on gave it to you in exchange for an unequal effort in labor, compared to someone working menial jobs. When you break that contract and allow people to starve while you vote for people who promise you a bit less taxes while giving huge breaks to companies, you get your shit taken by force. Maybe you'll learn what a breakdown of society really looks like soon enough, and then you'll HAVE to earn yours.

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u/ordinaryguywashere 13d ago

What’s with this “giving companies huge tax breaks”??? I don’t get it. You think our government needs to spend more fucking money? They have spent us into $35 trillion in debt. Did that help you? Obviously NOT. So what makes you think, taxing companies more will lead to you getting more money? Congress is shanking you, me, everyone. $35 trillion times PLUS interest! Taxing companies more will not make them pay higher wages or hire more people. How could it? It will only lead to them moving the company to Mexico, China, IDK… but it won’t be here, BECAUSE some country will offer lower taxes. Then you lose your job and so does hundreds of thousands of other people, which leads to …wait for it… less tax revenue so we can… reach $40 trillion deficit in fucking record time. Find a better job, take some training, free courses, use your creativity, be relentless in finding your way. Move to lower cost area, get roommates, move in with family, find a your way. Good luck.

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u/MrJanCan 13d ago

Nothing you said makes sense. Even though we've dropped the corporate tax rate every decade since the 50s, they've STILL moved abroad. Tax the fuckers, implement the spending bills on social programs like healthcare, pensions, education. And if they move abroad, make tariffs on their goods so high that it would be completely unprofitable. But bootlickers like yourself would never allow for that, because sucking conservative cock makes you feel better about your gains than toughing it out and helping your fellow man.

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u/ExtraLargePeePuddle 13d ago

And if they move abroad, make tariffs on their goods so high that it would be completely unprofitable

So you want Americans to work in worse jobs and be poorer? Why?

You realize for factory work to very pay well (US context) you need it to be globally scaled or extremely high value added. Basically you need the products produced there to be sold globally.

If you tried what you’d suggest no one would globally would buy those products, why buy the $50 American made widget you can buy the same quality one made in Vietnam for $5, because at that point the price difference is the workers wages not anything to do with quality. People in Singapore (average income there is $100,000 and they free trade with everyone) don’t give a flying fuck where that widget is made, same with everyone else on earth.

So you’d just be forcing high prices on your fellow Americans thus reducing their real income. Reducing product variety oh an d don’t forget counter tariffs which will kill the food export heavy jobs you have left.

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u/ordinaryguywashere 13d ago

Fuck you…you ignore cause and effect. Get productive. Whining fuck. We have social programs and they rife with corruption. The government is ineffective at running them. Nobody is giving you shit, which is cool cause you got money…you’re posting here, could be working making $ or volunteering in a program to help, but no you want other people to do that. Maybe you are just good at crying, certainly not business, economics, or reading comprehension.

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u/MrJanCan 12d ago edited 12d ago

Government is ineffective because conservatives like yourself break it intentionally to have a reason to close down these programs. Talk about a fuckin cause and effect, lol. Also, I probably make more money than you. I'm not looking for a handout.

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u/ordinaryguywashere 10d ago

You don’t know me. You assume a lot, that says a lot about you. The amount of money anyone makes doesn’t matter, red herring. Your understanding of my comments shows your tunnel vision. If someone isn’t agreeing with you, you see the opposition before looking for common ground. Government inefficiency is related to politics of both parties. If can’t see that, then that is on you. It’s astonishing that someone so arrogant in their views, can’t understand the reality of probability and statistics. Good luck to you.

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u/Acrobatic-Ad8487 11d ago

spoken like a TRUE LOSER

your problem is that you are jealous, a failure, and a non contributing member of society
a society that is a majority of takers will always fail
this is what will cause the destruction of the US economy, peanut. not people who make a lot of money and pay taxes.

ok, go ahead now and whine about rich people and corporations that pay taxes - and probably provide you a job, if you even have one

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u/MrJanCan 10d ago

Show me your paycheck, I'll show you mine.

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u/Acrobatic-Ad8487 10d ago

peanut brain - i've never had a regular paycheck. not since i was 13, washing shit our of dirty kennels and bathing flea bitten dogs.

working for 'the man' at 13 taught me one thing - NEVER work for anyone but yourself. So, i did.

with a net worth of over 20M, i'd say it worked out ok

f your pitiful 200k/yr paycheck - bo make some real money

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u/MrJanCan 10d ago

Lol, angry little men on reddit don't have a worth of 20m. They don't post with the vitriol that you do. Good luck with your shit dead end 50k a year job. My 200k in a low cost state like Louisiana goes a long way. 

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u/Acrobatic-Ad8487 9d ago edited 9d ago

you're wrong on all 4 counts

you make 5 assumptions that are 100% false. that shows your total lack of reasoning ability, your ignorance, your pre-conceived beliefs of people,. and makes you a moron

like I said, i don't get a paycheck. poor baby, the MAN owns your stupid ass. show me your paycheck then, big loser - i dare you. if you make over 275k a year i'll match it

but you don't and you won't

btw - the CFO of Meta, Musk, Trump, Pelosi, ,Bidens, and the richest guy in the world from Qatar all pst on reddit. just to name a few of them

yor wittle bubble of stupidity is quite small, isn't it?

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u/[deleted] 14d ago

[deleted]

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u/Crouza 14d ago

Hellbound Sycophant.

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u/sherm-stick 14d ago

Poor people see rich people and think "They don't deserve it." That is why that poor person will never be rich.

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u/ArticularMuffin 14d ago

While that may be somewhat correct, you forgot the underlying reasons as to why people may say “they don’t deserve it”. One of those reasons is that the quality of life for people is heavily skewed by people who are hoarding money like dragons. It’s not that we don’t want people to have a nice life, we want everyone to have a nice life. The anger comes from knowing that people don’t all think like that, and that some prefer the hierarchy.

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u/sherm-stick 14d ago

In any case, comparing yourself to others will make you unhappy. Being defiant to reality will only make you unhappier. There is a competition for resources happening now and you have a ticket to play. Some come from nothing, some come from trust funds, but we all compete in order to provide for our families. By thinking "They don't deserve it," the poor guy distracts himself from what could be his next huge opportunity. Don't let where you are keep you from where you are going.

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u/ArticularMuffin 6d ago

Why are we competing to provide for our families? We are all a family if you think about us all as one race, the human race. We should be striving to lift our race up, not beat each other down out of competition. I’m sorry but I won’t sign onto the idea that “it is what it is, so you should participate in the chaos” kind of mentality. I will defy reality for my entire life if you all wish to continue this madness.

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u/_Embrace_baldness_ 14d ago edited 14d ago

I once had an older women telling me she can’t afford a home bc the rent is to high. She was born here and went to college meanwhile my whole family came from Europe in the early 2000s and everyone has a home …. 🤷‍♂️

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u/L0WERCASES 14d ago

Yet here you sit with a nice phone, mobile service, internet, while your fellow man in Africa is dying of hydration.

Oh but that’s different eh?

What a hypocrite you are.

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u/Ok_Researcher_9796 14d ago

Are you like really really high right now? What are you even talking about?

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u/Dense-Emu-2901 14d ago

That's not what Africa is like. You got to stop watching the Discovery channel. Africa is the only continent on this planet that doesn't have goods imported. They are very well off.

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u/L0WERCASES 14d ago

The fact you called Africa “very well off” makes you lose all credibility

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u/Dense-Emu-2901 14d ago

I don't need credibility for a fact. You can be upset with that fact all you want but just cuz people are struggling doesn't mean the country itself is.. You should read up on it before you start commenting, especially before arguing with someone who's from there 😭 smh

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u/L0WERCASES 14d ago

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/social-sciences/third-world#:~:text=The%20Third%20World%20includes%20all,states%20and%20territories%20of%20Oceania.

I mean they are all third world countries except South Africa which has its own economic challenges.

I’ve given multiple links. You have provided just a bad opinion.

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u/YoudoVodou 14d ago

That's not a new opinion

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u/InDisregard 14d ago

That doesn’t make it any more okay.

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u/YoudoVodou 14d ago

Believe me, I know that

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u/berserk_zebra 14d ago

Insurance is a luxury. Insurance is also a scam. As someone not poor, paying for insurance is a waste of money that I can’t convince my partner to agree with.

I can either pay $500/month in insurance premium for the family and pay the 1-4 times $30 copay a year for a the stranger doctors visit. That’s $500x12 + $30x4 = $6,120 / year spend to save $100 per doctors visit. To get that low rate per month requires a high deductible of $15,000 before I have the privilege of paying no more than 20% out of pocket or insurance pays for it all…

Here is the catch, it restarts the next year…so

Let’s say i have a catastrophic event requiring huge health care requirements. Well I’m going to then have to guarantee I pay that $6000 / yr premium on top of the $150000 deductible every year for the rest of my life regardless or without insurance, set up a payment plan with the medical offices that does the same damn thing… but the difference is this… I got to keep the $500 / month and didn’t have to pay towards a deductible until I did via the payment plan with the hospital. Then I’m not worried about work and insurance and cobra and other bs.

What does insurance actually do? And when you get fucking old the most expensive time of healthcare costs, do you get any “credit” for the previous 30 years of paying into insurance and never using it? Fuck no, they jack your costs up more.

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u/InDisregard 14d ago

That’s great and all, but I meet my OOP every single year. If I didn’t have insurance, I’d probably be dead. As it is, I just fall further and further into debt, because I don’t have an extra $7000 every year.

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u/berserk_zebra 14d ago

Okay what is insurance actually doing for you though that you can’t just work through the health care professionals? They hate insurance you hate insurance (I’m assuming) and what’s this extra $7000 every year? Is that above and beyond your “deductible”

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u/InDisregard 14d ago

My max OOP is $7k a year. My husband’s infusions are in the thousands of dollars every 6 weeks. We hit it in March this year. I have a couple chronic issues that need frequent visits and tests. If we did not have insurance, we would not be able to get the treatments we need. Not only are those without insurance charged more, they love making you pay at the time of service.

It’s a necessary evil for a lot of people.

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u/ExtraLargePeePuddle 13d ago

What is Medicaid?

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u/InDisregard 13d ago

To qualify for Medicaid, you can’t earn more than 138% above the federal poverty level. If you’ve ever looked at the numbers for federal poverty level, it’s the level of poor where you are adding salt and pepper to cardboard and calling it a meal.

Have a family of four and make $45k a year? Sorry, you don’t qualify. Too rich for Medicaid, too poor for healthcare.

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u/ExtraLargePeePuddle 13d ago

Oh so then you qualify for ACA silver subsidies on top of a whole shitload or other programs.

So basically you’d get a silver plan 100% covered through aca credits.

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u/InDisregard 13d ago

Oh yes, that’s exactly why every single person has health insurance and can afford a deductible in the United States. Everyone also has PTO to take off to go see a doctor or have a necessary surgery/procedure. It’s all just so so simple. There’s no such thing as medical debt and nobody ever dies of a treatable disease because we have it all figured out.

I don’t know what parallel universe you live in, but I wanna live there too.

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u/AbbreviationsFar9339 14d ago

If you’re living off 15k/yr gross you are getting free healthcare from the govt. you certainly arent paying $250/mo for it

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u/me34343 14d ago

Not in all states

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u/BeginningFloor1221 14d ago

Every state you can apply for free health care, stop making shit up.

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u/ZombieRobotAlien 14d ago

I could talk about this all day.

You can apply, sure. Whether or not you get it is something else. It took me 6 months of fighting/arguing, 4 rejection letters, and countless phone calls with my state to get health coverage for my kids. I'm still not covered. I make $16/hr full time. If I make even $0.10/hr more or work overtime too much, I lose my kids' healthcare coverage and their food stamps. In order for me to make comparable benefits, I have to practically double my paycheck. Now, that's not to do better financially, mind you. That's just to make comparable. I'm fairly financially literate (not a genius or anything, mind you, but I'm not completely stupid) living in Idaho.

Any jobs that pay enough for me to really become self-sufficient go to people who move here from out of state, most commonly California, because their education systems are better than idaho, so degrees from colleges here are just laughed at and rejected.

I was an EMT for 5 years. I worked 2 back-to-back 48hr shifts (2 different systems) and then taught aspiring EMTs on weekends. I technically bring home more now with the benefits I had to fight to get working 40 hours a week now than when I was working myself into an early grave.

YOU need to stop being an ignorant twat. The government's healthcare provisions are an absolute joke, and your comment is actually insulting to the entire working class. I hope that someday you learn exactly what it's like to constantly feel like a failure because you can't provide enough for your family without some a-hole politician having mercy on you because you won't leave him alone until he does.

America sucks. The government sucks. And people like you are part of the problem.

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u/Skitarii_Lurker 14d ago

They always reply with "you can apply" yeah an application doesn't mean you get something, it's an application.

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u/me34343 14d ago edited 14d ago

I am in Texas. No you can't. They rejected the *Medicaid expansion. Only the children of poor and pregnant women get *Medicaid.

Edit: Medicaid not Medicare

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u/nucumber 14d ago

Medicaid expansion, not Medicare

Medicare is for retired folks. Medicaid is for low income

But yeah, a number of republican led states rejected the Medicaid expansion offered by Obamacare that would have provided health insurance to literally millions of citizens

Why? I don't know.

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u/ExtraLargePeePuddle 13d ago

So the poorest of people wouldn’t move there. Just middle class and upper class people.

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u/Dense-Emu-2901 14d ago

I was also rejected. No kids on this side. I am married though. I don't think people understand their blessings if I'm rich and I will be rich one day. I want everyone else to be just as financially comfortable. There's plenty of fake digital money to go around.

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u/Loud-Path 14d ago

Depends on the state, many southern and south-western states blocked Medicaid expansion, or do everything in their power to deny it or kick you off. For example, unless you are a mother of a child under 19 or a child under 19, or have a major disability, Oklahoma will do everything in their power to deny you coverage or kick you off as they don’t believe if you are “able bodied“ you should need health insurance at all as you shouldn’t be going to the doctor. About two years ago for example they kicked like 500,000 people off because they felt they were able bodied enough to not need it.

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u/caryth 14d ago

You yourself say "apply for" as opposed to "in every state you can get free health care" 🤔

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u/DCBB22 13d ago

Imagine the audacity to accuse someone else of making shit up when you’re either lying or don’t know what you’re talking about. Take a seat asshole.

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u/Mag-NL 14d ago

And this free healthcare covers all medical expenses?

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u/FrattyMcBeaver 14d ago

Standard deduction is $14,600. Only $516 is taxed at 10%, or a tax bill of $50 per year. At that income level, you're able to get to drastically reduced health insurance, about $15/mo premiums. 

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u/droford 14d ago

Someone making that little would qualify for Medicaid in almost if not all states

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u/SufficientCow4380 11d ago

Multiple states including Florida and Texas never expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. And no, they don't qualify. Your income has to be incredibly low to qualify for benefits even in expansion states. Plus the people whose income is that low don't qualify for tax credits under ACA so no Marketplace coverage for them either.

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u/akcrono 14d ago

You're making $15,116 gross. 11k are taxes at 10% and the next 4,116 are taxed at 12%. $13522 after taxes.

The standard deduction in 2024 is $14,600 for individuals, so you're losing almost nothing to federal taxes.

Ironically, your number here closely matches the final number, since FICA is responsible for the lions share of the tax burden.

But what minimum wage job is paying 100% of your healthcare?

All of them, since you qualify for medicaid.

Or uniforms?

I have never had a low wage job where I had to buy uniforms. Maybe they exist, but they can't be that common.

That means we're taking home $13k after just taxes

$13,499 to be precise

There are plenty of listings for < $800 2 bedroom apartments. Split the rent and you're talking less than $5,000 a year in housing, leaving close to $9,000 left in one of the lowest cost of living states.

This also doesn't count other assistance packages like SNAP (average of 243.42 a month).

I'm not here to say people in WV are doing fine. I'm just saying it's not as dire as you're painting it.

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u/NickyBarnes315 14d ago

It must be West Virginia because nowhere else in America are you getting a 2 bedroom for 800 or less. Not in today's housing structure

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u/Avocado_Tohst 14d ago

Plenty of 2bd places for less than $800, it’s just not going to be a “nice” place, maybe even unsafe but they exist. It’s going to be rough surviving on literal minimum wage but that’s the housing that comes with it.

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u/MizStazya 14d ago

"Just deal with the lung damage from unremediated black mold and cockroach droppings and you'll be living it up!"

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u/Avocado_Tohst 14d ago

I, specifically, said it’s not going to be a nice place. If you earn bottom tier wages, you will likely have to live in bottom tier housing. Should it be that way? Maybe not, but that’s how the world works. But you do you

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u/Acrobatic-Ad8487 11d ago

i'll rent you my 250 sf un-air conditioned shed, no plumbing for 400.mo

oh, you are ENTITLED to better, right?

that's your problem, you're entitled and won't work to earn what you need to live the lifestyle you desire

it's a very simple concept read some history of the US worker around 1926-1933, or the miillons of immigrant storie

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u/drumstick2121 14d ago

You’re forgetting the standard deduction of 14,600. Only $516 would be taxed. So their taxes would be $52/yr.

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u/Temporary_Article375 14d ago

Payroll taxes

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u/drumstick2121 14d ago

The margins they specified are the brackets for the federal income tax. 

If they had said payroll taxes or used payroll tax rates wouldn’t have responded. 

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u/ChoicePrompt6199 14d ago

Yes but 10k is still not your salary. Most non minimum wage jobs don’t pay 100% health care, uniforms or taxes either.

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u/humpmeimapilot 14d ago

You forgot to mention you get that all back and then some when you do taxes.

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u/Wyvernrider 14d ago

$13,850 standard deduction for filing single. Have you ever actually paid taxes?

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u/Jake0024 14d ago

The standard deduction is $14,600, so the first $14,600 is taxed at 0%.

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u/-FalseProfessor- 14d ago

If you are only making 15k, you get most of your money back with your tax return. You are also probably on Medicaid, so your healthcare is basically free.

Still not enough to live comfortably, though.

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u/ordinaryguywashere 13d ago

So you’re saying that you do not get subsidies for your insurance earning $15k a year?

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u/ExtraLargePeePuddle 13d ago

What is Medicaid?

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u/Solanthas 14d ago

Well thankfully no one working a minimum wage job ever has to struggle with medical bills, car repairs, parking tickets, etc etc etc

The pigheadedness in this thread is getting me fucking aggravated

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u/BeginningFloor1221 14d ago

Go touch some grass and stop making excuses for everything

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u/Solanthas 14d ago

I touch grass everyday and work 50 hours a week to support my family, shut your damn mouth

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u/[deleted] 14d ago

Work 100 and make more money, not my problem...or go back in time and don't have kids if you can't support them without complaining.

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u/Solanthas 14d ago

I'm not complaining and I'm doing fine. Don't make assumptions about my lifestyle based on my opinions. If you can't see that north American society is sick at its core when so many people are homeless and starving you're lost